2016 Holiday Day 2 - Beer and Sandwich

Today we decided to stay local. The weather was predicted to be hot and sunny again, but the humidity was due to drop a little which should make it a bit more pleasant than yesterday outside. Traditional American breakfast in the stomachs, the first port of call was the local supermarket - Stop and Shop - for a few supplies for packed lunches. Matthew prefers to eat some sandwiches and crisps for lunch, saving room for a bigger dinner, and finding a sandwich in America that isn't the size of a small house is pretty difficult! Nice big supermarket - but absolutely freezing in there! I'd forgotten to take a jumper, so was just in a T-Shirt, and it felt like stepping out into the mid-winter!

Supplies purchased, we headed down Route 6A - a historic highway - to look at the cranberry bogs and picture-perfect wooden houses before arriving at our first stop - the Cape Cod Brewery for a narrated tour.

Every morning at 11am, the brewery gives a tour. Except it wasn't much of a tour. Just standing around while someone explained how beer was brewed and gave us a history of the company. Which was OK. Just not quite what I was expecting. It's only a small brewery, so it's understandable. Clare bought a tasting glass, which was 5 fills for $5 including the glass - a bargain. She tried a few of the local brews and declared them to be pretty good. There's a nice on-site shop and good facilities, so it was a pleasant enough hour. They also have games to keep you entertained while waiting for the tour to start.

Beer history and tasting over, we headed to the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis. This is going to sound a bit crazy but we needed to visit a sports shop to buy Matthew a gum shield. You see, in the UK, it's all but impossible to buy one for if you have upper and lower braces - which Matthew had - so Clare had found a brand in the US which did them and sold them through a store in this mall. We stopped for a Dunkin Donut (we're on the east coast of the USA, it's practically the law), browsed a few shops (including the excellent Midway Comics) before heading back.

Once back at the hotel, we decided to walk to the beach. It wasn't far and it was such a lovely sunny day, we thought we'd spend a bit of time there before coming back to the hotel pool. Well, I think we'd forgotten how far it was because it was really quite a long walk, and the temperature was around 89 degrees at this point. So it was hot work! We walked up to the Sandwich Broadwalk and along to the beach, but it was very hot, so we decided to cool down with a slushy by the beach, before heading back

Then it was time to hit the pool to cool down and head to the Tavern for dinner. We opted for pizzas tonight and they were pretty good, although Matthew does prefer Pizza Express still!

Then it was time for Wheel of Fortune (Disney special), Jeopardy! (college special) and the terrible Olympics coverage on NBC (honestly - I'm not sure I'll complain about the BBC ever again...)